Manuela Barbolla

Libri dell’autore

The encyclical Mortalium animos, issued by Pius XI on 6th January 1928, had the effect
of preventing from any attempt of ecumenical experience for a long time. It was thought that
such effects had not been assessed when the document had been drawn up. An analysis of the
Vatican documents makes it possible today to affirm that on the one hand this effect was pondered
and wanted, and that on the other hand the reasons for this choice lie very far away. The
genesis of the encyclical has to be researched in the German phenomenon of the High Ecumenical
Church. However, the various experiences of contact with non-Catholics in different
parts of the Old and of the New world, in particular the Conversations of Malines, were not
unknown to those who drafted and promulgated the encyclical.